Was Einstein right? Scientists provide first public peek at Gravity Probe B results

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Gravity Probe B measured two effects predicted by Einsteins general theory of relativity. The geodetic effect says the Earths mass warps local time and space like the weight of a bowling ball placed on a rubber sheet would dent the sheet. The frame-d ...
Gravity Probe B measured two effects predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The geodetic effect says the Earth’s mass warps local time and space like the weight of a bowling ball placed on a rubber sheet would dent the sheet. The frame-dragging effect posits that the rotating Earth drags time and space around with it like a spinning dancer’s body causes her skirt to swirl. Source: Stanford University

For the past three years a satellite has circled the Earth, collecting data to determine whether two predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity are correct. Saturday, at the American Physical Society meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., Professor Francis Everitt, a Stanford University physicist and principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) Relativity Mission, a collaboration of Stanford, NASA and Lockheed Martin, provided the first public peek at data that will reveal whether Einstein's theory has been confirmed by the most sophisticated orbiting laboratory ever created.


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